Machakos sex pests have been warned that their days are numbered, subcounty criminal investigations officer Rodah Kanyi has said.
Kanyi said police rescue many children who are defiled and impregnated. The victims are placed in various rescue centres within and outside the county.
She spoke during a visit to Mwiso Children Rescue Centre in Mwala on Saturday.
Machakos subcounty children officer Emily Kimanzi was also present.
“We are warning those men who defile and impregnate children. We will arrest and charge you in court,” Kanyi said.
The team spent time with the children, ate together and counselled teenage girls before donating food, clothing, shoes, bedding, sanitary pads and toys as Christmas gifts to the home.
“If you impregnate a child, that’s the end of you. You will rot in jail,” the officer added.
Kanyi said they started visiting the rescue centre in 2017 and have since been working with its management to rescue, protect, raise and seek justice for children.
“We as police officers decided to be visiting this home since majority of these children pass through our hands. They include defiled girls with some impregnated following the defilement acts. We have arrested suspects and taken them to court,” she said.
The officer said some of the rescued minors had given birth in the home and were raising fellow children.
She said they help the home take such girls to school once they deliver since their ordeal isn’t the end of their lives.
Kanyi said her office makes follow ups once suspects are arraigned until the victims get justice.
Kimanzi on her part said most children in the rescue centre were defiled.
She said there is a high rate of incest in the county leading to such cases.
“Here, we place children who are expecting children. Children who have been rejected in their families. The community should know that the responsibility and best place for the child is within the family.
“A child should grow up all rounded. Therefore, we need to address issues that make a child be removed from a family environment,” Kimanzi said.
She said parents, uncles, grandparents are defiling their children. "What’s the problem?"
Kimanzi said every time they rescue children, it’s always "father has defiled step daughter, uncle has defiled a special child."
“What kind of society are we making for our children? Let’s be on look out as a community especially during this festive season.
“Christmas is not about evil and immorality. Let’s do the right thing and remember the less fortunate, that’s the essence of Christmas,” Kimanzi said.
The home’s director and founder Annastasia Nzioka said she established it after retiring from civil service in 2017. The youngest child at the home is five months while the oldest just joined university.
“We thank Kanyi and her team for remembering us before thinking about their families,” Nzioka said.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
